^BULLETIN  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  GEORGIA ^ 

ISSUED  MONTHLY  BY  THE  UNIVERSITY 

Entered  at  the  Post  Office  at  Athens,  Ga.,  as  Second-class  Matter,  August  30,  1905 
under  Act  of  Congress  of  July  16,  1894. 

VoLVIL  AUGUST,  1907,  (Supplement)*  No*  12 


ALUMNI  ADDRESS 

DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  ALUMNI  SOCIETY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  GEORGIA 
JUNE  18,  J907. 


BY 

HON.  C.  M.  CANDLER 

OF  DECATUR,  GA. 


SERIAL  NUMBER  T  2. 


Alumni  Address 


Mr.  President,  Fellow  Alumni,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

“As  it  is  the  distinguishing  happiness  of  free  government,  that 
civil  order  should  be  the  result  of  choice,  and  not  necessity,  and 
the  common  wishes  of  the  people  become  the  law  of  the  land,  their 
public  prosperity,  and  even  their  existence,  very  much  depend 
upon  suitably  forming  the  minids  and  morals  of  their  citizens. 

Where  the  minds  of  the  people  in  general  are  viciously  dispos¬ 
ed  and  unprincipled,  and  their  conduct  disorderly,  a  free  govern¬ 
ment  will  be  attended  with  greater  confusions,  and  with  evils 
more  horrid  than  the  wild,  uncultivated  state  of  nature. 

It  can  only  be  happy  where  the  public  principles  and  opinions 
are  properly  directed,  and  their  manners  regulated.  This  is  an  in¬ 
fluence  beyond  the  stretch  of  laws  and  punishments,  and  can  be 
claimed  only  by  religion  and  education. 

It  should  therefore,  be  among  the  first  objects  of  those  who 
wish  well  to  the  national  prosperity  to  encourage  a  nil  support  the 
principles  of  religion  and  morality,  and  early  to  place  the  youth 
under  the  forming  hand  of  Society,  that  by  instruction  they  may  be 
moulded  to  the  love  of  virtue  and  good  order.  *  *  * 

“This  country,  in  the  times  of  our  common  danger  and  distress* 
found  such  security  in  the  principles  and  abilities  which  wise  reg¬ 
ulations  had  before  established  in  the'  minds  of  our  countrymen, 
that  our  present  happiness,  joined  to  pleasing  prospects,  should 
conspire  to  make  us  feel  ourselves  under  the  strongest  obligations 
to  form  the  youth,  the  rising  hope  of  our  land,  to  render  the  like 
glorious  anid  essential  services  to  our  country.” 

Thus  spake  our  forefathers  in  the  Charter  of  the  University 
of  Georgia,  and  surely  in  this  presence,  and  to  these  sons  of  our 
historic  Alma  Mater,  whose  charge  was  “the  general  superintend¬ 
ence  anid  regulation  of  the  literature  of  this  tSate,”  I  need  offer  no 
apology  for  attempting  today  to  discuss  Public  Education  in  Geor¬ 
gia. 

Called  at  the  eleventh  hour  to  the  discharge  of  the  honorable 
duty  before  me,  by  reason  of  the  inability  of  the  distinguished  Dr. 
Hadley,  of  Yale,  or  either  of  his  alternates  to  be  present,  I  am  deep* 
ly  conscious  of  my  lack  of  fitness  to  fill  their  place,  and  have  there¬ 
fore  selected  this  subject  as  one  in  which  I  feel  assured  you  have 
a  sympathetic  interest.  It  is  a  subject  demanding  plain  state¬ 
ments  of  fact,  rather  than  eloquent  speech.  It  is  an  old  theme, 


3 


yet  ever  present  and  ever  vital,  so  long  as  one  generation  suc¬ 
ceeds  another.  It  concerns  us  today,  as  it  did  our  forefathers 
and  as  it  will  our  children’s  children. 

To  begin  at  the  beginning.  In  the  first  Constitution  ordained 
by  the  people  of  free  Georgia,  our  forefathers,  in  1777,  declared  that 
“Schools  shall  be  erected)  in  each  county  and  supported  at  the  ex¬ 
pense  of  the  State,  as  the  Legislature  shall  hereafter  point  out.” 

In  that  same  instrument  there  were  created  eight  counties, 
and  within  eight  years  thereafter,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  dur 
ing  practically  this  entire  period  the  State  was  engaged  in  a  bloody 
struggle  for  the  right  of  existence  as  an  independent  government — 
notwithstanding  the  unsolved  and  vexing  problems  of  a  people  en¬ 
gaged  in  blazing  out  new  governmental  paths — notwithstanding  the 
financial  stress  of  a  government  without  a  treasury,  and  the  pover¬ 
ty  of  pioneer  settlers  whose  only  assets  were  in  unexplored  forest 
wilds,  every  county  had  its  public  academy,  established  at  the  ex¬ 
pense  of  the  State,  and  the  system  crowned  with  the  proposed 
State  University,  from  whose  Charter  I  have  just  quoted — the  Act 
of  1785,  providing  that  “All  public  schools,  instituted  or  to  be  sup¬ 
ported  by  funds  or  public  monies  in  this  State,  shall  be  considered 
as  parts  or  members  of  the  University.”  *  *  *  *  and  the 

duty  imposed  on  the  President  of  the  University,  as  often  as  the 
duties  of  his  station  should  permit,  at  least  once  in  a  year,  to  visit 
every  school  and  examine  into  its  “order  and  performance.” 

During  the  first  one  hundred  years  of  her  independent  history, 
Georgia  had  six  Constitutions,  and  in  every  one,  save  that  of  1789, 
in  force  for  only  nine  years — and  the  crudest  and  most  imperfect 
of  all  our  fundamental  laws — the  promotion  of  learning  and  science 
and  the  education  of  the  people  were  made  mandatory  on  the 
Legislatures,  and  unlimited  power  and  the  widest  discretion  grant¬ 
ed  them  in  devising  methods  and  means  for  the  attaining  of  the 
great  end  desired — the  universal  education  of  the  people. 

As  the  forefathers  of  1777  believed  that  the  general  diffusion 
of  education  was  one  of  the  chief  pillars  on  which  rested!  the  sta¬ 
bility  of  the  government  they  were  struggling  to  establish,  even  so 
believed  the  fathers  of  1861,  and  in  the  Constitution  of  that  year, 
facing  a  struggle  for  the  preservation  of  the  rights  their  sires  had 
won,  unparelled  in  the  histories  of  war,  they  declared  “The  Gen¬ 
eral  Assembly  shall  have  the  power  to  appropriate  money  for  the 
promotion  of  learning  and  science,  and  to  provide  for  the  educa¬ 
tion  of  the  people.” 

After  four  years  of  bloody  war,  the  heroes  of  a  lost  cause  re¬ 
turned  to  desolated  homes  and  wasted  fields,  and  gathered  together 
the  remnants  of  manhood,  met  together  for  the  framing  of  a  new 
Constitution,  and  realizing  more  than  ever  that  the  hope  of  good 


4 


government  depended  upon  suitably  forming  the  minds  of  the  youth 
of  the1  State,  that  they  might  “render  the  like  glorious  and  essen¬ 
tial  services  to  their  country,”  they  reordained  the  educational  pro¬ 
vision  of  the  Constitution  of  1861,  in  that  of  1865,  and  further  di¬ 
rected  the  General  Assembly  to  provide  “for  the  early  resumption 
of  the  University  of  Georgia  by  the  adequate  endowment  of  the 
same.” 

The1  Constitution  of  1868,  an  infinitely  better  instrument  than 
any  one — at  the  beginning  of  the  Convention  which  framed  it, 
judging  from  the  personnel  of  the  great  majority  of  its  member¬ 
ship — could  have  anticipated,  contained  the  mandatory  provision 
that  the  first  Legislature  to  asemble  after  its  ratification,  should 
establish  “a  thorough  system  of  general  education,  to  be  forever 
free  to  all  the  children  of  the  State,  the  expense  of  which  to  be 
provided  by  taxation  or  otherwise.” 

In  not  one  of  these  instruments,  from  1777  to  1877,  was  there 
a  limitation  on  the  powers  of  the  Legislature  to  support  by  taxa¬ 
tion  nor  a  restriction  on  their  discretion  as  to  the  scope  of  charac¬ 
ter  of  the  educational  system  to  be  supported  at  the  public  ex¬ 
pense. 

For  the  first  time,  in  1877,  Georgia  adopted  a  contracted  and 
narrow  view  of  the  State’s  interest  and  duty  in  public  education, 
and  in  the  Constitution  of  that  year,  the  mandatory  provision  for 
“a  thorough  system  of  common  schools  for  the  education  of  chil¬ 
dren”  was  qualified,  and  the  unfortunate  restriction  added,  “in  the 
elementary  branches  of  an  English  education  only,”  and  the  power 
to  tax  for  educational  purposes  so  limited. 

Unfortunately  this  was  not  all,  for  in  that  instrument,  munic¬ 
ipalities  and  counties  were  so  hampered  by  restrictions  as  to  their 
power  to  tax  themselves,  that  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  cen¬ 
tury,  educational  progress  in  progressive  communities,  has  been 
[handicapped  and  thousands  of  children  pleading  for  bread,  have 
had  to  be  content  with  the  crusts  afforded  by  the  insufficient  funds 
from  the  State  Treasury. 

Prior  to  the  ratification  of  the  Constitution  of  1877,  it  was  in 
the  power  and  discretion  of  the  Legislature,  to  provide  and  support 
by  taxation  and  otherwise,  a  thorough,  complete  and  correlated 
system  of  public  education,  beginning  with  Elementary  Schools, 
ton  through  Secondary  Schools,  to  the  University. 

The  Constitution  of  1877  rendered  impossible  any  complete 
State  system  of  public  education.  It  provided  only  for  the  estab¬ 
lishment  and  maintenance  of  elementary  schools,  and  the  support 
of  the  University,  without  any  connecting  links.  It  provided  for 
the  laying  of  a  foundation  and  the  putting  on  of  the  capstone,  thus 
erecting  a  structure  dwarfed  in  its  very  conception. 


5 


This  narrow  view  of  the  State’s  interest  in  and  duty  to  public 
education,  was  placed  in  the  Constitution  on  the  initiative  of  men 
who  were  avowed  enemies  to  the  principle  of  education  of  the  peo¬ 
ple  by  the  State,  at  the  public  expense'. 

I  have  seen  it  stated  in  a  paper  by  Prof.  Stewart,  and  subse¬ 
quently  in  a  speech  by  Hon.  H.  H.  Perry  of  Gainesville,  at  Mill- 
edgeville,  that  G’en.  Toombs  was  responsible  for  'the  Constitutional 
restriction  on  our  educational  system  and  if  I  remember  correctly 
the  newspaper  reports  of  Mr.  Perry’s  speech,  reported  him  as 
thanking  G'en.  Toombs,  for  such  a  restriction.  These  generally 
well  informed  gentlemen  are  mistaken  in  ascribing  to  General 
Toombs  the  authorship  of  this  clause,  or  direct  responsibility 
therefor. 

I  regret  that  on  the  aye  and  no  vote  on  its  adoption,  he  is 
recorded  as  having  voted  for  it,  but  ithte  Convention  records  do  not 
show  that  he  did  more,  nor  that  he  spoke  a  word  during  the  debate 
thereon. 

The  education  article  of  the  Constitution  as  prepared  and  re¬ 
ported  by  the  Committee  on  Education,  of  which  Gen.  Toombs  was 
not  a  member,'  diid  not  contain  this  restriction  nor  was  it  in  the  ar¬ 
ticle  as  reported  to  the  Convention  by  the  Committee  on  Final 
Revision,  of  which  Gen.  Toombs  was  Chairman. 

The  amendment  to  the  Article  as  reported  by  the  Committee, 
restricting  public  education  to  “the  elementary  branches  of  an 
English  education  only,”  was  offered  by  Judge  Augustus  Reese,  of 
Morgan  County,  and  vigorously  advocated  by  him  and  by  Mr.  Hol¬ 
combe  of  Milton,  both  of  whom  stated  that  they  were  opposed  to 
the1  whole  theory  of  public  education  at  State  expense  and  would 
abolish  it  if  they  had  the  power. 

Gen.  Toombs  voted  for  the  amendment,  as  did  a  majority  of 
the  Convention — of  more  than  this  he  must  be  acquitted. 

I  cannot  believe  that  a  majority  of  the  Convention  voted  for 
the  Reese  amendment  upon  the  same  convictions  as  did  its  author, 
but  rather  because  of  then  existing  peculiar  political  conditions 
and  the  public  unrest  following  the  Presidential  election  iof  1876. 
Nor  do  I  believe  that  such  a  Constitutional  restriction  upon  the 
scope  of  public  education  would  be  favored  by  a  Constitutional 
Convention  in  1907,  or  ratified  by  the  voters  of  1907,  if  submitted 
ito  them. 

Not  only  was  it  for  the  first  time  in  our  State  history,  that 
in  1877  we  embodied  in  our  fundamental  law  this  narrow  view  iof 
the  object  and  scope  of  public  education,  but  for  the  first  time  we 
actually  placed  an  embargo  on  education  by  religious  or  philan¬ 
thropic  organizations  or  institutions,  willing  to  assume  a  part  of 
the  public  burden  and  aid  in  the  great  work  of  training  the  young 


6 


and  fitting  them  for  the  duties  of  citizenship,  in  the  limitation  plac¬ 
et!  on  the  power  of  the  General  Assembly  to  exempt  from  taxation 
other  property  than  the  “buildings  erected  for  and  used  as  a  Col¬ 
lege,  incorporated  Academy,  or  other  Seminary  or  learning.” 

God  speed  the  day  when  public  sentiment  and  a  realization  of 
the  needis  of  the  State  for  more  and  better  educated  citizens,  will 
demand  of  the  Legislature  the  submission  for  ratification  by  the 
people,  of  a  Constitutional  Amendment  exempting  from  taxation 
all  property  exclusively  used  in  the  great  cause  of  education. 

I  do  not  fear  a  union  of  Church  and  State  or  the  evils  of  “dead 
hand,”  in  a  republican  form  of  government,  nearly  so  much  as  I 
Ido  the  danger  to  its  stability  from  the  ignorance  of  the  suffragists. 

I  have  thus  far  undertaken  to  show  the  broad1  conception  our 
fathers  had  as  to  the  necessity  for  the  education  of  the  people, 
under  a  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  at  the  ex¬ 
pense  of  the  people,  as  illustrated  in  our  earlier  Constitutional  his¬ 
tory,  and  that  it  was  only  as  recently  as  1877  that  our  ideal  of  a 
broad,  complete  and  correlated  system  of  public  education  was 
abandoned. 

With  this  brief  review  1  desire  toi  call  attention  to  educational 
conditions  today  and  to  some  of  the  needs  of  our  system. 

The  estimated  school  population  in  Georgia  in  1905,  was  720,- 
000,  of  whom  about  375,000  were  white  and  345,000  colored. 

Of  this  population  probably  one-half  were  males,  so  that  if  all 
lived,  in  1920,  360,000  new  voters  would  be  entitled  to  participate 
in  the  government  of  the  State. 

Of  the  720,000  persons  between  six  and  eighteen  years  of  age, 
488,000,  or  67  per  cent,  at  cne  time  or  another  during  the  year, 
went  to  a  school  house  and  placed  their  names  on  the  school  rolls 
— but  out  of  this  enrollment  there  was  an  average  attendance  dur¬ 
ing  the  year  of  only  280,000,  or  less  than  40  per  cent  of  the  school 
population.  Of  this  average  attendance,  172,000  were  white  chil¬ 
dren,  that  is  only  46  per  cent  of  the  white  school  population  of 
Georgia  attended  school  in  1905  with  any  degree  of  regularity.  In 
other  words,  less  than  one-half  of  the  white  children  and  only  two- 
fifths  of  all  the  children  of  the  State  attended  school  after  enroll¬ 
ment. 

When  I  have  mentioned  this  one  fact  I  have  said  enough  to 
attract  the  thoughtful  attention  icf  every  patriotic  Georgian  who  ha,s 
at  heart  the  welfare  of  society  or  the  perpetuity  of  good  govern¬ 
ment.  Need  we  wonder  that  the  census  enumerators  found  in 
Georgia  in  1900,  more  than  475,000  persons  ten  years  of  age  and 
over,  unable  to  read  or  write  their  names,  of  whom  over  100,000 
were  whites. 

Let  us  analyze  these*  figures  further. 


7 


Of  the  estimated  school  population  in  1905,  approximately 
600,000  lived  in  the  county  and  in  the  small  towns,  leaving  a 
strictly  urban  population  of  approximately  120,000. 

This  rural  school  population  is  almost  entirely  dependent  on 
the  State  Common  school  fund.  In  1905  this  fund  was  approxi¬ 
mately  $1,735,000,  of  which  about  $1,450,000  was  available  for  the 
600,000  rural  children,  that  is,  less  than  $2.50  per  child. 

Of  the  rural  school  population,  389,000  were  enrolled  in  the 
State  system,  with  an  average  attendance  of  217,000. 

That  is,  only  36  per  cent,  barely  more  than  one  in  three  of  the 
rural  school  population  in  the  State  regularly  attended  school  in 
1905.  Of  the  white  children  in  the  rural  districts  of  the  State, 
only  131,000,  or  40  per  cent  of  the  total,  attended  regularly. 

In  the  local  systems  in  the  State  in  1905,  mainly  in  the  cities 
and  towns,  the  enrollment  was  70  per  cent  as  against  55  per  cent 
in  the  rural  districts  and  the  average  attendance  53  per  cent  of  the 
population  as  against  36  per  cent  in  the  rural  districts. 

The  expenditure  per  capita  for  the  urban  children  was  $12.72 
as  against  $3.72  per  capita  for  the  rural  children. 

The  average  number  of  days  taught  in  the  rural  districts  was 
103,  as  against  8  1-2  months  in  the  urban  districts. 

These  figures  demonstrate  that  the  cities  and  larger  towns 
in  Georgia,  are  in  a  large  measure  doing  their  duty  in  providing 
(educational  opportunities  for  their  children,  and  that  they  see 
the  necessity  for  general  education  and  are  taxing  themselves  to 
provide  it. 

For  every  dollar  given  them  by  the  State,  they  are  raising  four 
dollars  by  local  taxation. 

The  enrollment,  however,  of  only  70  out  of  every  one  hundred 
and  the  average  attendance  of  only  53  out  of  every  one  hundred, 
suggest  to  my  mind  the  inquiry  as  to  whether  having  provided 
8  1-2  months  per  year  of  good  free  schools  by  taxation,  they  should 
not  consider  whether  the  time  has  not  arrived,  when  in  such 
communities  the  attendance  on  these  schools  should  by  law,  be 
made  compulsory. 

The  statistics  given  further  demonstrate  the  total  inadequacy 
of  our  rural  schools,  and  prove  the  fact  that  five-sixths  of  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  the  State  are  not  enjoying  equal  opportunities  with  the 
remaining  one-sixth,  who  live  within  the  limits  of  our  towns  and 
cities. 

This  is  neither  fair  to  the  children  living  in  the  country,  nor 
is  it  to  the  interest  of  the  State. 

To  my  mind  the  blighting  imperfections  and  the  glaring  weak¬ 
ness  of  our  State  Educational  system,  are  sadly  shown  in  the 
rural  districts  of  the  State. 


8 


Six  hundred  thousand  chiMiren,  of  whom  325,000  are.  white,  be¬ 
ing  educationally  starved.  It  is  to  this  condition  of  public  educa¬ 
tion  in  the  rural  districts  that  I  desire  especially  toi  call  your  at¬ 
tention. 

I  believe  the  crying  need  of  our  system  is  the  immediate  es¬ 
tablishment  and  the  liberal  support  of  more,  better  equipped,  bet¬ 
ter  taught,  and  better  supervised  elementary  schools,  with  the  vi¬ 
tal  connecting  links  of  Secondary  schools,  in  which  large  numbers 
of  our  country  boys  and  girls  would  be  enabled  to  secure  larger 
opportunities  and  fitness  for  usefulness  than  is  obtainable  in  the 
primary  schools,  and  through  which  many  others  could  reach  and 
enjoy  the  blessings  of  the  State  aided  institutions  of  higher  educa¬ 
tion. 

With  a  correlated  system  of  primary  and  secondary  schools  in 
the  rural  districts,  giving  to  the  country  boys  and  girls  equal  op¬ 
portunities  with  their  brothers  and  sisters  in  the  cities,  I  believe 
in  five  years,  the  attendance  upon  every  one  of  our  State  supported 
nstitutions,  as  well  as  on  every  denominational  college  in  Georgia, 
would  be  doubled,  and  in  a  generation,  quadruplets. 

I  believe  that  utility  should  be  the  supreme  test  in  education 
and  that  this  standard  should  always  be  kept  in  view  in  shaping 
the  courses  of  study  in  the  Common  schools,  Primary  and  Second- 
ary.  At  the  same  time  I  do  not  believe  it  is  fair  to  cut  the  country 
boys  and  girls  off  from  higher  opportunities  and  confine  them  abso¬ 
lutely  and  exclusively  to  elemental  or  vocational  studies. 

I  would  not  disparage  the  abilities  nor  the  virtues  of  our  ur¬ 
ban  population,  but  I  do  believe  that  the  country  offers  a  surer 
■and  better  field  for  the  development  of  strong  characters  and  the 
cultivation  of  manly  virtues,  than  do  our  cities.  The  country  is 
largely  free  from  the  vices  that  attract  and  allure  the  young  to 
dissipation  and  ruin.  The  environment  of  country  life  is  more  fa¬ 
vorable  to  moral  training,  as  well  as  physical  healthfulness  and 
growth.  There  are  no  crowded  tenements  with  their  disease  laden 
atmosphere — no  narrow  alleys  in  which  are  nightly  lessons  of  de¬ 
pravity — no  gilded  resorts  in  which  the  young  are  taught  to  forget 
or  deride  the  homely  virtues  of  the  fireside.  The  country  boy  has 
room  to  grow,  and  filling  his  lungs  with  the  pure  air  of  heaven, 
perfumed  by  the  flowers  that  grow  on  every  side,  his  activities 
are  not  prescribed  by  a  feiw  square  feet,  but  are  as  broad  as  the 
acres  over  which  he  romps. 

That  rare  gentleman  and  able  statesman,  the  Hon.  T.  G‘.  Law- 
son,  himself  a  living  example  of  the  best  product  of  an  ideal  coun¬ 
try  environment,  has  beautifully  and  truthfully  pictured  nature’s 
aid  in  the  development  of  a  country  boy.  “Conversant  day  and 
night  with  the  glory  of  the  heavens,  with  the  beauties  of  the 


9 


earth,  and  with  the  songs  of  the  birds,  his  aesthetical  faculties 
are  unconsciously  and  continuously  developed. 

“With  the  earth  beneath  him,  and  the  vaulted  sky  above  him, 
his  soul  luxuriates  in  the  love  of  freedom  with  as  much  felicity  as 
he  breathes  the  free  air  of  heaven,  and1  there  is  born  within  him  an 
intense  love  of  country  and  an  eternal  hostility  to  oppression  and 
tyranny.  As  his  mind  unfolds  and  enlarges  under  the  inspiring 
beauty  and  love  of  nature  everywhere  around  him,  it  imbibes  sen¬ 
timents  that  revolt  against  narrow  schemes  of  selfishness,  and 
temptation  to  sordid  commercialism  and  avarice.” 

“Charity  and  hospitality,  the  fear  of  God1  and  the  love  of  man¬ 
kind,  create  and  enrich  within  him  the  virtues  of  a  lofty  char¬ 
acter.’ 

“In  the  thousands  of  country  homes  in  Georgia  today  are  found 
thei  purest  and  highest  types  of  true  Americanism,  and  in  them  is 
ever  kept  fresh  the  hope  of  our  State  and  our  country. 

“But  rich  as  are  the  opportunities  bestowed  by  an  all  wise 
Providence  on  these  country  boys,  yet  they  do  not  suffice  for  the 
fullest  development  and  the  highest  equipment  for  service  to  So¬ 
ciety  and  the  State. 

“Their  minds  should  be  trained  to  understand  and  grasp  the 
problems  of  the  broader  life  and  human  society,  as  well  as  the 
lessons  of  science  and  philosophy  bound  up  in  the  common  place 
things  about  them.”  They  should  be  taught  not  alone  to  find 

“Tongues  in  (trees,  books  in  running  brooks, 

Sermons  in  stones,  and  good  in  everything,” 
but  that  greater  lessons,  so  often  forgotten  in  the  isolation  of  the 
country,  that  no  man  lives  unto  himself  alcme — that  the  highest 
aim  in  life  is  service,  and  that  qualification  for  the  best  service 
is  in  education.” 

I  plead  today  for  better  and  wider  educational  opportunities 
for  the  children  of  the  rural  districts.  Thcis.  Carlyle  said,  “This 
I  call  tragedy,  that  there  should  one  man  die  ignorant,  who  had 
capacity  for  knowledge.”  I  do  not  know,  but  possibly,  nowhere  in 
the  English  speaking  world,  is  this  tragedy  of  more  frequent  occur¬ 
rence  than  in  the  rural  districts  of  Georgia,  and  with  less  than  one- 
half  of  the  white  school  population  in  these  districts  attending 
schools  regularly  are  we  of  this  generation  likely  to  behold  fewer 
such  tragedies? 

The  perfection  of  our  system  ,the  multiplication  of  our  schools, 
the  betterment  ictf  their  equipment,  the  employment  of  better  quali¬ 
fied  and  trained  teachers,  the  broadening  of  our  curriculum,  the 
lengthening  of  the  school  terms,  none  of  these  can  come  without 
larger  funds.  Money  may  or  may  not  be,  as  has  been  said,  the  root 
of  all  evil,  but  I  believe  it  is  today  the  sum  of  all  our  educational 


10 


necessities.  In  its  great  need  is  comprehended  all  our  several 
needs.  If  we  could  give  our  State  rural  school  system  $6,000,000, 
instead  of  $1,500,000,  every  other  need  could  be  met,  and  with  this 
sum,  we  would  be  doing  for  the  600,000  rural  children  of  the  State 
only  what  our  cities  and  towns  are  doing  for  their  120,000. 

There  is  but  one  way  in  which  the  urgent  need  for  larger  funds 
can  be  met,  and  that  is  by  local  taxation.  The  country  must  large¬ 
ly  help  itself,  and  after  all  self-help  is  the  best  help.  It  is  educa¬ 
tional  in  itself.  It  exalts  the  man,  as  well  as  ennobles  the  object. 

The  State  can  increase  its  appropriation  tci  the  common  school 
fund,  only  as  taxable  values  increase.  We  are  now  virtually  at  our 
constitutional  tax  limit  of  five  mills,  and  only  as  new  subjects  of 
taxation  or  larger  properties  are  found1  by  the  tax  gatherer,  can 
any  considerably  larger  appropriations  be  made  from  the  State 
Treasury. 

To  secure  the  supplementary  local  tax  in  small  towns,  districts 
and  counties,  by  a  two-thirds  popular  vote  as  our  constitution  re¬ 
quires,  the  public  mind  and  conscience  must  be  awakened  and 
aroused. 

The  saddest  truth  in  regard  to  education  in  the  rural  districts, 
is  that  our  people  do  not  realize  their  educational  needs.  Parents 
actually  think  that  their  children  are  being  equipped  for  life,  chil¬ 
dren  believe  that  they  are  being  educated,  and  some  of  the  teach¬ 
ers  are  satisfied  with  methods.  No  human  being  ever  tried  to  bet¬ 
ter  his  condition  until  he  was  brought  to  a  realization  of  his  needs, 
and  our  rural  districts  will  never  have  thorough  educational 
advantages  until  the  peicple  themselves  get  a  proper  concep¬ 
tion  of  conditions  as  they  are,  and  of  needs  as  they  really  exist. 

When  the  public  mind  is  educated,  when  the  public  conscience 
is  aroused,  self  help  will  follow.  The  great  mass  of  tax-payers  will 
demand  the  privilege  of  aiding  the  State  in  educating  their  chil¬ 
dren,  and  in  training  them  for  the  highest  usefulness  to  the  State, 
to  Society,  and  to  themselves. 

I  do  not  favor  a  large  per  capita  school  tax,  as  has  been  recent¬ 
ly  suggested  in  some  quarters.  Our  poll  tax,  which  is  an  educa¬ 
tional  tax,  is  enough  on  this  line,  and  is  constitutionally  limited  to 
$1.00.  I  believe  all  property  values  are  enhanced  and  property 
rights  safe-guarded  by  universal  education,  and  that  property, 
rather  than  the  individual,  should  contribute  more  largely  to  this 
enhancement  and  security. 

Nor  can  I  bring  myself  to  favor  national  aid  to  common  school 
education,  neither  do  I  believe  it  desirable  or  politic.  In  it  I  can 
only  see  tne  probabilities  cf  complications  that  would  bring  endless 
race  troubles  in  the  South,  besides  bringing  us  nearer  to  that  cen- 


11 


tralization  of  power  in  the  Federal  Government,  so  dangerous  toi 
the  reserved  rights  and  powers  of  the  States. 

The  campaign  now  needed  should  he  a  campaign  for  the  edu¬ 
cation  for  voters  and  tax-payers,  in  order  that  the  education  of  the 
child  may  follow.  When  this  first  campaign  is  successfully 
ended,  thei  second  will  follow  and  be  won,  just  as  the  light  follows 
and  dispels  the  darkness. 

Do  not  let  us  waste  our  time  and  energies  on  side  issues.  It 
is  idle  to  talk  of  compulsory  attendance  laws  for  the  rural  districts 
until  we  have  a  thorough  system  of  elementary  schools,  amply 
financed,  with  better  buildings  and  equipment,  with  more  efficient 
and  better  paid  teachers,  and  competent  State  and!  county  super¬ 
vision,  upon  which  to  compel  attendance.  Then — and  net  till  then 
would  I  advocate  a  general  compulsory  attendance  law. 

There  are  individuals  and  economic  reasons  why  we  should 
devote  our  undivided  attention  to  the  perfection  and  financing  of 
our  State  system,  now  so  largely  a  rural  system. 

Georgia  is  largely  an  agricultural  State,  and  notwithstanding 
our  vast  strides  in  manufacturing  industries,  doubtless  for  years  to 
come  agriculture!  will  continue  to  be  the  occupation  of  a  large  ma¬ 
jority  of  her  people. 

The  influx  of  our  best  rural  population  to  the  cities  and  towns, 
the  increasing  abandonment  of  our  farms  to  a  shiftless  and  care¬ 
less  tenantry,  if  continued,  is  bound  to  prove  a  calamity. 

The  hurtful  exodus  of  whites  from  the  country  to  the  cities,  is 
made  up  largely  of  two  classes;  1st,  Parents  who  value  education 
and  realize  their  duty  to  give  their  children  the  opportunities  of 
obtaining  it;  and,  secondly,  of  young  men,  who  without  proper 
educational  equipment  for  the  pursuit  of  the  noblest  profession  of 
life,  and  without  any  true  idea  of  its  wonderful  possibilities,  be¬ 
come  dissatisfied  and  seek  employment  in  the  cites,  in  the  endi  only 
to  fix  through  life,  their  destinies  as  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers 
of  water. 

Agriculture  is  no  longer  looked  upon  as  an  occupation — it  is  a 
science.  On  the  soil  and  its  cultivation  all  life  depends  for  sus¬ 
tenance.  It  is  the  sole  asset  in  all  creation  that  is  inexhaustible 
and  indestructible,  because  it  contains  within  itself  the  possibility 
of  infinite  renewal. 

Every  farm,  properly  and)  scientifically  tilled  and  cared  for, 
should  be  worth  more  money  with  each  passing  year,  and  yet  our 
youths  are  daily  abandoning  the  farms  to  seek  in  the  city  dry 
goods  clerkships  or  motor  handles  on  trolley  cars.  The  earth  is  the 
Lord’s  and  the  fullness  thereof,  and  he  who  is  intrusted  with  the 
care  of  even  one  acre  of  it,  is  a  co-worker  with  God. 

There  is  no  human  occupation  in  which  the  exercise  of  talents 


12 


and  forethought  anid  the  application  of  principles  of  science  yield 
quicker  or  more  certain  or  larger  returns.  There  is  no  profession 
in  life,  in  which  education  of  mind  and  hand  is  more  necessary,  or 
more  sadly  lacking. 

I  rejoice  that  in  agricultural  education  Georgia  is  preparing 
to  lead  the  way  in  the  establishment  of  agricultural  high  schools 
in  every  Congressional  district  of  the  State. 

Gov.  Terrell,  in  a  few  days  to  surrender  the  helm  of  State,  has 
the  distinction  of  having  occupied  the  gubernatorial  chair  for  a 
longer  period  with  one  exception  than  any  other  Georgian  since 
the  war,  but  this  fact  will  have  long  been  forgotten  when  it  is  re¬ 
membered  that  to  him,  more  than  to  any  other  man  or  official, 
is  due  the  successful  organization  in  Georgia  of  eleven  schools  in 
which  the  teaching  of  the  science  of  agriculture  will  be  the  chief 
work,  and  in  which  may  be  given  some  degree  of  special  training 
which  will  send  our  farmer  boys  back  to  the  farms,  better  equipped 
for  their  life  work,  and  filled  with  new  zeal  and  higher  love  for  a 
profession  that  enobles  man  and  exalts  God. 

Georgia  has  need  of  such  young  men.  Conditions  prove  this. 

There  are  in  this  State  37,747,000  acres  of  lanidi,  but  only  10,- 
615,000,  or  28  per  cent  are  actually  under  cultivation,  the  other  72 
per  cent  being  unimproved  and  untilled.  The  value  in  1905  of  all 
farm  property  in  Georgia,  including  live  stock,  implements,  etc., 
was  $300,000,000,  and  the  value  of  the  agricultural  products  of 
Georgia  for  1905,  was  $150,000,000.  Of  the  nine  climate  belts  in 
degrees  of  latitude,  and  altitudes  from  5,000  feet  down  to  sea  level, 
Georgia  can  produce  within  her  borders  every  crop  and  fruit  grown 
in  the  United  States. 

And  yet,  with  advantages  of  climate  and  soil  equalled  by  few 
states,  witu  a  farming  population  in  native  intelligence  and  inauS 
try  surpassed  by  no  people  on  earth,  a  ctudy  of  the  °rop  statistics 
of  the  National  Government  show  us  sadly  behind  other  states 
in  our  methods  anid  in  the  intelligent  application  of  scientific  prin¬ 
ciples. 

In  1905  the  average  yield  of  corn  per  acre  in  Georgia  was 
ele\en  bushels  as  against  28  4-5  in  the  whole  country.  In  the  yield 
per  acre  Georgia  ranked  46th  among  48  states  and  Territories,  only 
exceeding  Florida  and  South  Carolina. 

wheat,  the  average  per  acre  was  6  9-10  bushels  as  against 
14  1-2  tor  the  Union,  and  we  ranked  42nd  in  44  states,  exceeding 
'  riy  North  and  South  Carolina. 

In  oats,  15  bushels  per  acre  against  34  for  the  whole  country, 
and  out-ranking  Florida  only  in  48  states  and  territories  reported. 

In  potatoes  our  yield:  per  acre  was  65  bushels,  as  compared 


13 


with.  S7  for  the  country,  and  we  ranked  44th  in  47  states  and  ter¬ 
ritories. 

In  cotton,  our  chief  crop,  we  produce  about  one  bale  to  f  )ur 
acres, 

Need  I  pursue  this  line  further  to  convince  you  as  1  have  my¬ 
self,  that  Georgia  is  behind  nearly  every  other  agricultural  state  in 
this  great  country,  not  because  of  any  lack  of  willing  workers  with 
native  ability,  not  because  of  any  disadvantage  of  climate,  not  be¬ 
cause  of  sterility  of  her  soils,  but  because  of  lack  of  trained  minds 
and  scientific  methods. 

Every  department  in  life,  with  its  constant  changes  in  indus¬ 
trial  conditions  due  to  new  application  of  science,  demands  bet¬ 
ter  training  and  greater  adaptibility  on  the  part  of  the  worker,  and 
in  no  profession  are  they  more  needed  than  in  agriculture. 

Science  has  supplied  an  immense  funidi  of  usable  information 
that  is  revolutionizing  the  older  methods  of  our  fathers,  and  the 
i.eed  of  which  is  emphasized  because  of  the  almost  brutal  indiffer¬ 
ence  with  which  we  have  robbed  our  soil  of  its  virgin  fertility. 

A  knowledge  of  soils,  their  composition,  and  characteristics; 
of  plant  life,  its  organism,  development  and  growth,  of  animal  life, 
of  mechanics,  of  drainage,  irrigation  and  engineering,  of  agricul¬ 
tural  chemistry,  physics,  and  even  of  elementary  commercial  law 
and  usages,  is  not  imparted  in  our  elementary  schools,  nor  gather¬ 
ed  in  a  practical  way  on  the  farm,  except  after  years  spent  in 
careful  observation  and  laborious  study,  and  then  only  imperfectly 
and  crudely. 

This  knowledge  can  best  be  supplied  in  a  time  saving  and  in¬ 
telligible  manner,  in  practical  agricultural  Secondary  Schools,  sup¬ 
plementary  to  our  elementary  schools. 

These  schools  should  be  wide  open  to  every  boy  of  good  char¬ 
acter,  and  every  lesson  taught  from  the  text  books  should  be  illus¬ 
trated  on  the  school  farm.  Conducted  along  the  lines  upon  which 
they  have  been  organized,  and  properly  equipped  and  liberally 
supported  by  the  State,  I  have  unbounded  faith  in  the  practical 
success  of  the  eleven  schools  we  are  now  building.  I  can  but  be¬ 
lieve  that  they  will  early  prove  inestimable  blessings  to  thousands 
and  send  back  to  the  farms  of  Georgia  yearly  increasing  numbers 
of  strong  young  men  better  equipped  for  their  chosen  life  work, 
and  fired  anew  with  zieal  itio  make  the  harvest  fields  of  this  great 
State  to  wave  in  double  beauty  and  plenteousness. 

And  then  we  are  to  crown  the  system  with  out  rejuvenated 
anld1  reorganized  College  of  Agriculture. 

Mr.  President,  the  old  college  of  Agriculture  here  has  never 
had  a  square  deal.  With  virtually  no  equipment,  undermanned  and 
half  starved,  oiftimes  unfairly  criticized,  and  always  under  sus- 


14 


picious  eyes,  it  has  never  been  permitted  to  enjoy  the  confidence 
of  the  agricultural  classes  of  the  State,  nor  given  fair  opportunity 
to  prove  its  usefulness. 

But  I  believe  a  brighter  day  is  dawning.  I  believe  that  our 
people  realize  the  breadth  of  its  field  of  usefulness  and  the  need  of 
a  special  school  of  high  standing,  whose  sole  care  shall  be  the  de¬ 
velopment  and  promotion  of  the  science  of  agriculture,  in  which 
more  than  one  and  three  quarter  millions  of  our  people  are  directly 
interested,  and  on  which  all  depend  for  the  sustenance  of  life. 

This  College  may  not  send  back  to  the  farm,  farm  laborers. 
I  trust  it  will  not.  But  it  will  send  back  to  our  communities  train¬ 
ed  and  educated  agriculturalists.  It  will  give  us  especially  fitted 
and  qualified  young  men  as  teachers  in  our  agricultural  schools, 
and  leaders  of  thought  and  examples  of  immeasurable  influence  in 
every  ocmm unity. 

In  all  the  range  of  educational  effort,  I  know  no  field  so  hith¬ 
erto  sadly  neglected  in  Georgia  as  that  of  agricultural  education, 
nor  one  of  such  vast  possibilities  or  direct  good  to  the  overwhelm¬ 
ing  majority  of  our  people. 

Let  us  stop  our  criticisms.  Let  us  cast  aside  our  suspicions. 
Let  us  get  close  to,  and  in  touch  with  the  work,  and  let  us  make 
this  College  of  Agriculture  what  it  should  be,  and  what  it  can  be 
made — the  chief  corner  stone  of  our  temple  of  education,  a  foun¬ 
tain  from  which  shall  flow  ever  widening  streams  of  influence  and 
knowledge,  which  shall  revive  our  waste  places,  and  burden  them 
with  the  heavy  headed  harvest. 

Mr.  President,  1  make  no  plea  today  for  the  University  of  Geor¬ 
gia,  as  the  head  of  our  system.  None  is  needed  in  this  presence. 
None  ought  to  be  needed  anywhere.  Her  record!  is  one  of  glorious 
service,  and  her  past  is  her  pledge  for  the  future. 

Brought  into  existence  by  the  State,  the  Constitutional  man¬ 
date  of  the  people  is  laid  on  the  Legislature  to  support  it  as  liber¬ 
ally  as  the  condition  of  the  State  Treasury  will  authorize.  In  re¬ 
cent  years  the  General  Assembly  has  enlarged  its  appropriations 
for  its  support,  and  I  have  no  fear  but  that  they  will  be  more  lib¬ 
eral  in  the  future.  It  is  to  the  waste  places  in  our  common  school 
system  that  I  call  your  attention,  confident  that  if  we  build  these 
up — if  we  awaken  a  general  educational  revival  among  the  masses 
of  the  people,  if  we  educate  from  the  bottom,  we  will  kindle  a  flame 
of  educational  interest  that  will,  in  time,  dispel  all  darkness, 
and  amdist  its  illuminating  rays  scores-  will  come  up  to  these  halls 
where  now  only  the  few  obtain  the  blessing. 

The  poverty  of  our  country  cannot  longer  be  pleaded  in  bar 
of  more  liberal  support  to-  the  education  of  the  people  by  taxa¬ 
tion. 


15 


A  third  of  a  century  has  passed  since  war  devastated  our  land, 
and  the  indications  are  that  for  the  first  time  in  1907  our  taxable 
values  will  have  reached  and  passed  the  high  water  mark  of  1860. 
The  same  spirit  that  sustained  us  through  four  years  of  struggle 
for  the  right  against  overwhelming  odds,  has  animated  us  in  the 
more  prolonged  struggle  of  recuperation,  and  today  we  stand 
again  on  the  heights  and  look  upon  a  country  fruited  with  good 
and  rich  in  the  promise  of  better  things. 

Our  people  are  ready  for  a  forward  movement  toward  higher 
ideals  and  a  grander  destiny. 

The  croaker  who  halts  at  the  expense  of  education  should 
be  made  to  stand  aside.  He  must  be  taught  that  the  education 
of  his  children  is  not  only  an  investment,  but  a  security  for 
every  investment  that  he  already  has.  That  an  educated; 
mind  and  an  upright  character  are  not  only  more  valuable  than 
all  the  gold  and  the  silver  he  can  hoard,  but  that  they  are  the 
only  security  he  can  have  for  the  enjoyment  of  that  which  he 
has  accumulated. 

The  dearest  rights  of  property,  of  inheritance,  of  personal  se¬ 
curity,  of  life  and  liberty,  all  depend  upder  a  democratic  govern¬ 
ment,  On  an  educated  citizenship,  and  the  man  who  refuses  to 
contribute  to  the  general  diffusion  of  education  and  religion  is 
jeopardizing  the  very  thing  he  holds  of  highest  value. 

Gov.  Aycock  forcibly  said,  “it  undoubtedly  appears  cheaper  to 
neglect  the  aged,  the  feeble,  the  infirm  and  the  defective,  to  for¬ 
get  the  children  of  this  generation,  but  the  man  who  does  it  is 
cursed  of  God,  and  the  State  that  permits  it  is  certain  of  destruc¬ 
tion. 

“There  are  people  on  the  face  of  the  earth  who  take  no  care 
of  the  weak  and  infirm,  who  care  naught  for  their  children,  and 
who  provide  only  for  the  gratification  of  their  own  desires,  but 
these  people  neither  wear  clothes  nor  dwell  in  houses.  They  leave 
God  out  of  consideration  in  their  estimate  of  life,  and  are  known 
to  us  as  savages.” 

The  fact  is,  Mr.  President,  instead  of  being  too  poor  to  sup¬ 
port  a  thorough  system  of  public  schools,  we  are  too  poor  not  to 
sustain  such  a  system.  The  saying  of  the  wise  man  of  the  East, 
“There  is  that  scattereth,  and  yet  increaseth;  and  there  is  that 
withhold eth  more  than  is  meet,  but  it  tendeth  to  poverty,”  is  an 
inspired  truth  especially  applicalble  to  individuals  and  states  in 
the  matter  of  educational  expenditures. 

The  wealth  of  Georgia  today  consists  not  in  her  bank  de¬ 
posits,  her  stocks  and  bonds  or  stores  of  merchandise,  but  in  the 
richness  and  vastness  of  her  undeveloped  resources. 

And  the  asset  of  superlative  value  among  these  undeveloped 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILUNOIS-URBANA 


3  0 


12  105628728 


16 


resources,  is  in  the  three  quarters  of  a  million  children  in  the 
State. 

The  verdict  of  all  history,  formed  after  six  thousand  years  of 
trial,  is,  that  man’s  power  anld  capacity  as  a  wealth  producer  is 
multiplied  in  direct  proportion  to  his  education  and  training,  and 
that  the  ignorant  man  is  always  industrially  dependent.  If,  there¬ 
fore,  we  would  enrich  our  State,  and  make  her  indeed  the  Empire 
State,  let  us  take  the  raw  material  in  these  children,  anid  by  prop¬ 
er  fashioning  and  forming,  make  of  them  men  and  women. 

We  hear  much  of  the  problems  of  the  day,  of  combinations  of 
corporate  capital  and  their  restraint,  of  railroads  and  their  regu¬ 
lation,  but  transcending  all  these  in  importance  and  vital  concern, 
I  place  before  you  today  the  question  of  the  hour,  the  problem  of 
education. 

The  question  of  the  Man  of  Galilee  is  pertinent  today,  “For 
what  shall  it  profit  a  man,  if  he  gain  tlhiei  whole  world  and  lose 
his  own  soul,  or  what  shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his  soul.” 

I  love  this  State  of  my  birth,  this  land  of  my  fathers.  Her 
people  are  my  people.  I  long  to  see  them  prosperous  and  content¬ 
ed. 

Under  the  inspiration  of  this  occasion  and  in  this  place  dedi¬ 
cated  to  the  advancement  of  religion  and  education,  I  believe  1 
see  at  noi  distant  tday,  churches  and  school  houses  crowning  every 
hill  in  Georgia,  and  hear  her  every  valley  echoing  with  the  calls 
of  their  bells  to  altar  and  desk. 

With  such  scenes  in  mind,  I  am  reminded  of  the  prayer  of 
the  patriotic  bard  of  Scotland  for  his  native  land: 

“O  Scotia,  my  dear,  my  native  soil. 

For  whom  my  warmest  wish  to  heaven  is  sent. 

Long  may  thy  hardy  sons  of  rustic  toil, 

Be  blessed  with  health,  anti  peace,  and  sweet  content! 

And  oh,  may  Heaven  their  simple  lives  prevent 
From  luxury’s  contagion,'  weak  and  vile, 

Then,  howe’er  crowns  and  coronets  be  rent, 

A  virtuous  populace  may  arise  the  while 
And  stand  a  wall  of  fire  around  their  much  loved  isle.’- 


